In comparison to Cassius and Balloons, the first two singles from Foals' debut album Antidotes, Red Sox Pugie reveals its treasures pretty slowly.
The title doesn't give much away - a tenner for the first person to tell me what exactly a pugie is - and the track kicks off awkwardly with a harsh minute-long dustbin-lid drum solo. Then, just as the Oxford boys threaten to go all post-rock on us, the trademark African guitars kick in and we're back in familiar (and very welcome) Foals territory.
No major surprises here - the intense rhythms, high-pitched jangling and pounding drums are all present and correct - and this is in every way a Good Thing. Yannis Philippakis reprises his Robert-Smith-does-imagist-poetry-at-the-indie-disco routine, though possibly in a more naturalistic way than on the slightly mannered Cassius.
With its long, moody intro and outro, Red Sox Pugie feels like more of an album track than a single. The radio edit sounds clumsily truncated, so best to download the album version - or better still, buy, beg, borrow or steal Antidotes in its entirety.
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